Saturday, January 12, 2008

Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else.

1.     Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else.

2.     And until we be ready to sacrifice everything else to one idea and to one alone, we never, never will see the light.

3.     For the ordinary man and the beginner steady devotion (Nishtha) to an ideal is of paramount importance.

4.     There can be no vigour without steady devotion. Without it one cannot preach with the intensity of a Mahavira (Hanuman).

5.     If you have to think, think good thoughts, great thoughts.

6.     Do one thing at a time and while doing it put your whole soul into it to the exclusion of all else.

7.     Take one thing up and do it, and see the end of it, and before you have seen the end, do not give it up.

8.     Choose the highest ideal, and give your life up to that.

9.     Live for an ideal, and that one ideal alone.

10.                         It is the ideal that has made us what we are, and will make us what we are going to be.

11.  Keep to the ideal.

12.  You must have a great devotion to your ideal, devotion not of the moment, but calm, persevering, and steady devotion, like that of an Chataka…………

13.  Hold on to the ideal. March on! Do not look back upon little mistakes and things. In this battle-field of ours, the dust of mistakes must be raised. Those who are so thin skinned that they cannot bear the dust, let them get out of the ranks.

14.                         Doing is very great, but that comes from thinking……………….. Fill the brain therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals; place them day and night before you; and out of that will come great work.

15.  WE SHALL HAVE TO WORK, GIVING UP ALTOGETHER ALL DESIRE FOR RESULTS. People will call us both good and bad. BUT WE SHALL HAVE TO WORK LIKE LIONS, KEEPING THE IDEAL BEFORE US, without caring whether “the wise ones praise or blame us”.

16.  Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.

17.  Keep the ideal in view and work towards it.

18.  Every man should take up his own ideal and endeavour to accomplish it. That is a surer way of progress than taking up other man’s ideals which he can never hope to accomplish.

19.  The vast majority of persons are groping through this dark life without any ideal at all. If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the man without an ideal makes fifty thousand…………….To the vast majority of mankind, the body is everything; the body is all the universe to them; bodily enjoyment is their all in all. This demon of the worship of the body and of the things of the body has entered into us all. We may indulge in tall talk and take very high flights, but we are like vultures all the same; our mind is directed to the piece of carrion down below.

20.                         Life is short, but the soul is immortal and eternal, and one thing being certain death, let us therefore take up a great ideal and give up our whole life to it. Let this be our determination.

21.  It is a great thing to take up a grand ideal in life and then give up one’s life to it. For what otherwise is the value of life, this vegetating, little, low life of man?

22.  Religion is the search after the highest ideal.

23.                         He who can become mad with an idea, he alone sees light.

24.  Do not despair, and do not drag the ideal down.

25.  Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life---------these failures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it were not for struggles. Where would be the poetry of life? Never mind the struggles, the mistakes. I never heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow---------never a man. So never mind these failures, these little backslidings; hold the ideal a thousand times; and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more.

 

26.                       My duty is to find the ideal, the goal………

Be not in despair; the way is very difficult, like walking on the edge of a razor; yet despair not, arise, awake, and find the ideal, the goal.

 

27.  Unfortunately, in this life, the vast majority of persons are groping through this dark life without any ideal at all.

28.  Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

29.                         Fill yourselves with the ideal; whatever you do think well on it.

30.  Take care that you do not swerve an inch from the ideal.

31.                         It is the ideal that has made us what we are, and will make us what we are going to be.

32.                         Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else.

33.  You must have a great devotion to your ideal, devotion not of the moment, but calm, persevering, and steady devotion, like that of an Chataka which looks into the sky in the midst of thunder and lightning and would drink no water but from the clouds.

34.  It is a great thing to take up a grand ideal in life and then give up one’s life to it. For what otherwise is the value of life, this vegetating, little, low life of man?

35.                         Religion is the search after the highest ideal.

36.  If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the man without an ideal makes fifty thousand. Therefore, it is better to have an ideal.

PRACTICE

1.     One ounce of the practice of righteousness and of spiritual self-realisation outweighs tons and tons of frothy talk and nonsensical sentiments.

2.     It is practice first, and knowledge afterwards.

3.     One ounce of practice is worth twenty thousand tons of big talk.

4.     Practice is absolutely necessary.

5.     The real work is in the practice.

6.     What we are now is the result of our past practice.

7.     Doctrines have been expounded enough. There are books by the million. Oh, for an ounce of practice!

8.     Study, and then meditate on what you have studied.

9.     Practice makes us what we shall be.

 

10.                        The Secret of Religion

The secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice.